Further information: Commissioners also are inviting public testimony on whether to impose fees on oil and gas companies drilling wells to offset the costs of repairing wear and tear those companies' vehicles are expected to cause county roads. The county staff's report for Thursday's meeting is available online, through a link on the Land Use Department's "Oil & Gas Development" web page, at http://bouldercounty.org/dept/landuse/pages/oilgas.aspx

But county staffers are seeking extra time to get the training and make other preparations they say are needed to gear up for implementing and enforcing new oil and gas development regulations that commissioners adopted last month.

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Those new rules, once they take effect, will replace and update a 19-year-old set of Boulder County Land Use Code restrictions, requirements, standards and conditions about where new oil and gas wells can be drilled and operated outside the boundaries of the county's cities and towns.

They're "a complicated set of regulations that are much different than the regulations the county had been applying to oil and gas proposals in the past," the county staff said in a memo detailing the its recommendation for a four-month moratorium extension.

County commissioners have scheduled a Thursday afternoon public hearing and possible action on giving their staff the additional four months they are seeking.

The Land Use Department has suggested a pre-implementation work plan that would include: hiring consultants or outside experts; training the staff; preparing application materials, checklists, handouts and public information about the new regulations; developing and recommending new planning review and permit fees; coordinating with the Office of Emergency Management and the rural fire protection districts that could be called upon to respond to emergencies at the well sites; setting inspection schedules; updating computer databases and tracking systems; creating a new county oil and gas development web site; coordinating with the oil and gas industry about when applications can be expected to be submitted once the rules take effect; and coordinating with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission "to harmonize" state rules with the county's regulations.

Boulder County officials participated and testified in that state agency's December and January rule making hearings on proposed revisions to state rules about water quality monitoring near oil and gas wells and requiring bigger buffer-zone setbacks between wells and nearby houses and other structures.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission hasn't yet taken a final vote on its new setback rules, action that's expected later this month. The county staff has cited that as another reason for the moratorium extension, noting in its memo that once the state agency adopts its new state rules, Boulder County will have to see whether it needs to change its own recently approved regulations to conform to the revised state setback standards.

Thursday's county commissioners' meeting also is to include a public hearing opportunity for people to comment on the board's consideration of setting new transportation impact fees that oil and gas companies might be charged to offset the expense of repairing the wear and tear those companies' heavy trucks are expected to have on eastern Boulder County roads once drilling gets under way.

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